Joe Nacca: Dancing angels and plastic straws

Saturday

Feb 2, 2019 at 2:01 AM

Father Sheehan was a brilliant and whimsical high school teacher. When in the throes of a whimsical mood, he would regale his teenage students with humorous anecdotes or toss out knotty theological questions: “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” Since St. Thomas Aquinas had purportedly wrestled with this enigma and since our school was named after that theologian, I guess it was natural that the subject would come up.

Father Sheehan’s chuckle told us the degree of seriousness that he attached to the question, and we teens were only too willing to be diverted from translating lines of Latin or pondering the likely eternal damnation of our spotted souls.

In a wandering moment recently, a similar nonsensical question presented itself to the Inquiring Taxpayer: “How many plastic straws equal 19 pounds of carbon dioxide?”

There is currently a stirring afoot to ban plastic straws in Canandaigua. For many years there has been a more concrete move afoot to make our lakefront a tourist destination. Tax breaks, tax grants, the leasing of public dock space — all have been enacted or contemplated in an effort to bring in casual visitors and conventioneers.

Tax incentives for those arriving on foot or via horse-drawn buggy have not yet been put in place. Consequently, we can expect that for now most of our coveted tourists will travel by automobile. Most of those automobiles will be powered by gasoline. Which gasoline produces approximately 19 pounds of carbon dioxide per gallon used.

To be honest, I don’t know the impact on the environment of that 19 pounds of CO2 per gallon, but something tells me that it’s probably equal to at least five plastic straws. Who knows, a trip from southern Ohio to the Finger Lakes may be as environmentally harmful as a dozen plastic bags.

While I attempt some weak humor, my intent is not to ridicule the efforts to either ban or curtail the plastics. The cause is an important one. But I am curious as to why so little concern has been registered regarding the environmental impact of the lauded lakeshore commercial development. And I am curious as to what environmental concerns were registered behind closed doors as city council contemplated leasing public dock facilities to private interests. The bizarre thought occurs that if plastic straws and bags were stamped with the words “economic development,” some people would not only welcome them but even recommend that they receive tax breaks.

While on the subject of environmental protection, let us take note of Joel Freedman’s very long effort to prohibit the use of lawn chemicals within city limits (essay, Jan. 26). This is a thorny issue pitting environmental concerns against concerns for individual freedoms. Private property owners have traditionally been free to attack the dandelions in their yards, and even on the city right of way, with lawn chemicals. Will that activity now earn them a fine attached to their city property tax bill? Of course, as Mr. Freedman has pointed out, it is the nature of many laws to restrict “personal freedoms” in the public interest. One way, probably not the best way, to proceed is to continue the all-or-nothing battle of “educate vs. legislate.” Are there other possibilities?

It strikes me that if New York state can give billions in tax breaks to Amazon and millions to Pinnacle North for Brownfield cleanup, it might be able to provide some funding to help Canandaigua establish a model program of lawn management using environmentally safe methods. This thought occurs: For the last several years, property owners have received mysterious rebate checks from the state. These checks, to the extent that we recipients understand them at all, appear to be rewards for our local taxing bodies having behaved in ways that meet with Gov. Cuomo’s approval.

This is a shortsighted politically motivated program. A more meaningful program might involve sending rebate checks to property owners willing to participate in community efforts such as a comprehensive organic lawn management program.

The preceding suggestion is simply presented as one opening to some new thinking on an old issue. If nothing else, it focuses attention on the logical connection between public money and public works. Whether or not one agrees with Joel Freedman, isn’t it odd that millions of public dollars have been showered on private interests in just the last few years with no concurrent effort to use public money in response to the issue he raises?

Weighing costs and benefits is a constant challenge. Sometimes our choices ensnare us in contradictions. We give public money to lakeside development in the hope of attracting tourists. Yet we are concerned with greenhouse gas emissions. We consider banning plastic straws while also considering measures that will put more boats on our lake.

I can almost hear Father Sheehan’s signature chuckle: “The question today is how many carbon molecules can dance on the head of a plastic straw?”

Joe Nacca of Canandaigua is a frequent contributor to the Daily Messenger.

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